Danger and route indicator for railway cars



F. M. GINGER DANGER AND ROUTE INDICATOR FOR RAILWAY CARS Oct. 5 1926.

Filed March 9, 1926 4 III'IIIIIIQ.

Patented Get. 5, 1926.

warren STATES PATENT OFFICE.

DANGER Aivn aoU'rE INDICATOR FOR RAILWAY cans.

ripplication filed March 9, 1926. Serial No. 93,499.

This invention relates to placarding or indicating devices for railwaycars and particularly to means for indicating Whether a car containsinflammable matter or other dangerous commodity and for also indicatingthe routing of the car, though it is to be understood that the inventionis not limited to this use.

Oil tank cars mustbe placarded where the oil tank contains particularlyinflammable matters such as gasoline, casing hea d gasoline or thelikeand all railways cars which carry powder or other inflammable orexplosive material must be placarded to in dicate this fact. Theplacarding is done either by pasting to a car a sheet of paper havingproper indicia thereon or by attaching to the car a wooden board whichhas a relatively short life and which quite readily warps and splits.Route cards are usually either pasted or tacked upon the side of the carand it is extremely difficult to paste the route card upon the side ofthe car, particularly if the car is wet and there is a great liabilityof the routing car-d coming off. Tacking has the objection that thetacks must be removed whenever a new card is to be put in place and incold weather this is very unpleasant. This must be done each trip whenthe tank is loaded with gasoline or any other dangerous or explosivecontents.

The general object of my invention is to provide a danger indicator androute card holder which may be readily applied to ordinary freight carsor tank cars, and which may be used to readily indicate whether the caris loaded with inflammable or other dangerous matter or not.

A further object of my invention is to provide a device of thischaracter having an indicating disk or plate permanently mounted upon itwhich in one position will indicate the dangerous contents of the carand in other position indicate that the car is not loaded withinflammable or explosive matter, and in this connection provide meansfor locking this disk and indicating plate in place.

A still further object is to provide a device of this characterembodying a bracket 1 which carries upon it a route card holder, thisholder being ,so constructed that the route card maybe readily inserted,removed or replaced at any time with ease and with rapidity and yet soconstructed that the route. card will not be likely to drop out andbecome lost. p p I Other objects will appear in the course of thefollowing description.

My. invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings whereinFigure. 1 is a vertical sectional View through an indicator constructedin accordance with myinvention;

Fig. 2 is a section on the line 22 of Fignre1;

Fig. .3 .isa fragmentary top plan view with the lock closed; v

Fig. at is a like View to Figure 3 but showing the lock open;

Fig. 5 is a section on the line 5-5 of Figure 2;

Referring to these drawingsit will be seen that the bracket whichsupports my danger indicator and route-card consists of a strip of metalbent .to provide the horizontally disposed portion 10 havingperforations through itwhereby it may be readilyattached to the frame ofa tank car, freight car, or othercaror truck, this strip being formed toprovide a second horizontal portion 11, having a slot 12. Beyond thishorizontal portion 11 there is formed a vertical portion 13 which at itsupper end is upwardly and outwardly inclined, as at 14:, this portion 14being formed with an aperture or slot 15 havingsomewhat the form of akeyhole slot and embodying a circular opening intersected at its innerend by a transverse slot 15*.

Mounted upon this upwardly inclined end portion 14 is a lock consistingof a plate of metal 16, having a more or less rectangular opening 17 cutthrough it and formed .at its upper end with an inwardly and rearwardlyprojecting tongue 18, which is sharp pointed. This plate 16 is formedwith downwardly and inwardly bent flanges 19 which embrace the sideedges of the portion 14 so that this part 16' constitutes a sliding lockurged downward and rearward by gravity.

Coasting with the bracket is .an indicating plate designated generally20, preferably though not necessarily diamond-shaped or rectangular inform, having a downwardly extending lug or tongue at its lower endadapted to slide through the slot 12 and at its upper end having anupwardly projecting tongue 22 terminating at its upper end in a circularhead 23, having a diameter larger than the diameter of the opening 15 orthe length of the intersecting slot 15": This head is intended to bedisposed through the opening 15 and because of its larger diametercannot be pulled backward through this opening. In order to accomplishthis result the head is initial-- 1y formed with a diameter smaller thanthe diameter of the opening 15 or the length of the slot 15 'and afterbeing passed through the opening 15 or slot 15, this head may beflatten-ed out by hammering so as to increase its diameter, thus makingit impossible to detach this head 23 from the portion 1a of thesupporting bracket. The tongue 22 is provided with a slot 2% throughwhich the pointed lug 18 of the sliding lug 16 passes. When the lock isout of engagement with the tongue 22 it is possible to raise theindicator 20 so as to carry the tongue 21 out of the slot 15 and underthese circumstances the indicator may be turned entirely around so as todisplay its other face. One face may for instance, be painted white andthe other face be painted red so that when the indicator is turned withits red face outward it will indicate that the car carries dangerousmaterial while when it is turned with its white face outward it willindicate that the contents of the car are harmless. The lock 16 slidesfreely downward upon the portion 1a so that the ordinary oscillation ofthe car as it passes over the track will tend to cause the downwardmovement of the locking slide and thus there will be no danger while thecar is enroute, of the locking slide being de tached from the tongue 22.Thus it is necessary to manually raise the slide and manually shift orturn the indicator in order to change the indicator.

Attached to the portion 15 is a route card carrying plate designatedgenerally 25. This plate is formed with a plurality of diagonallyarranged slots 26 through which the corners of the route card 27 may bereadily inserted. This plate is engaged with the portion 13 in anysuitable manner but as illustrated, the plate extends behind the portion13 and is formed at one end with an inwardly bent tongue 28 engagingover the face of the portion 13, and between the route card and the end,the plate is formed with an inwardly pressed tongue 29 which engagesover the portion 13. The lower edge of the plate 25 is formed with anoutstanding flange 30 which extends below the horizontal portion 11 andhas a rebent tongue 31 engaging over the face of the portion 11, thuslocking the plate 25 to the body 10.

It will be seen that a route card may readily have its corners tuckedinto the slots 26 and then the route card will be held from anyaccidental detachment and from damage. It will be seen that this deviceis made of sheet metal and, therefore, has no parts to break, that isdoes away with the neces- *sity of tacking signs upon the cars, that itrequires no repairs and lasts the lifetime of the car and provides avery handy route card and consignee card holder, the rear face of thecard being adapted to be used for this purpose. This device permits theuse of printed route cards or stenciled cards having thereon the classof oil shipped, the route and the return address.

While I have illustrated a form of my invention which I have found to beparticularly effective in actual practice I do not wish to be limited tothe details herein described as these may be varied in many ways withoutdeparting from the spirit of the invention as defined in the appendedclaims.

I claim:

1. An indicator of the character described comprising a support having alower horizontally disposed portion having a slot, and an upper portionhaving an opening and a slot intersecting said opening tangentiallythereto, an indicator plate having a lower tongue insertible into theslot in the lower portion of the support, the upper end of the platehaving an upwardly extending tongue, the tongue having a width equal tothe diameter of the upper opening in the support and equal to the lengthof the intersecting slot, the tongue at its upper end being formed witha reduced neck and a head above the neck, the tongue at the neck havinga width equal to the opening at the intersection of the slot wherebysaid plate when lowered may have its tongue'shifted into said slot andwhen raised will be held in said slot against rotation, and means forlocking the plate in a raised position but with the lower tongue inengagement with the slot in the lower portion of said support.

2. An indicator of the character described comprising a support having alower horizontally disposed portion having a slot, and an upper portionhaving an opening and a slot intersectin said o3enin tan entiallythereto, an indicator plate having a lower tongue insertible into theslot in the lower portion of the support, the upper end of the platehaving an upwardly extending tongue, the tongue having a width equal tothe diameter of the upper opening in the support and equal to the lengthof the intersecting slot, the tongue at its upper end being formed witha reduced neck and a head above the neck, the tongue at the neck havinga width equal to the opening at the intersection of the slot wherebysaid plate when lowered may have its tongue shifted into said slot andwhen raised will be held in said slot against rotation, and gravityactuated means for locking the plate in a raised position but with thelower tongue in engagement with the slot in the lower portion of saidsupport.

3. An indicator or" the character described comprising opposed portions,one of said portions being formed with a slot and the other with anopening, an indicator plate disposed between said portions and havingtongues, one insertible through and fitting said slot and the otherextending up through said opening and being rotatable therein when thefirst named tongue is disengaged from the slot by lifting movement, saidindicator plate being rotatable tothereby display either side of theindicator plate and vertically movable to engage or disengage said firstnamed tongue from the slot, and means for locking the indicator platefrom vertical movement to thereby hold the first named tongue inengagement with said slot.

t. An indicator of the character described comprising a bracket having ahorizontally disposed supporting portion formed with a slot, one end ofthe bracket having an up- 'ardly inclined portion formed with anopening, an indicator plate disposed between said portions and havingtongues, one insertible through said slot and the other extending upthrough said opening, said iiidicator plate being rotatably shiftable tothereby display either side of the indicator plate, and means forlocking the indicator plate from rotative movement comprising a slidemounted upon the second portion of the bracket, the slide havinganopening through which the tongue of the indicator plate extends andbeing provided with a lug, the tongue of the indicator plate having aslot with which said lug is adapted to engage.

5. An indicator of the character described comprising a bracket having ahorizontal transversely slotted portion, and an upwardly inclinedportion having an opening, an indicator plate having a downwardlyextending tongue normally disposed through said slot and having anupwardly extending tongue normally disposed through said opening, thelast named tongue having a head larger in diameter than the opening andthe tongue being provided with a transverse slot, and a lock for theindicator comprising a slide mounted upon the upwardly inclined portionof the bracket and having an opening through which the tongue projects,one wall of the opening having a lug insertible through the slot in thetongue, the inclination of the bracket causing said slide to shift in adirection to carry the lug through the slot in the tongue.

6. An indicator of the character described con'iprising a support havinga vertical portion, and upper and lower portions extending at an angleto the vertical portion, one of said portions having a slot and theother portion having an opening, said last named portion being inclined,an indicator plate having a tongue at one end insertible into andfitting the slot and a tongue at the other end insertible into saidopening, said last named tongue being slotted and said plate beingvertically movable with relation to the support to thereby engage ordisengage the first named tongue rrom the slot in the support and a lockslidable on the inclined portion of the bracket and having a tongue.isertible into said slot in said tongue to thereby lock the indicatorplate from vertical movement and rotation.

'1' An indicator of the character described comprising a support havinga horizontally disposed portion formed with a slot, an opposed portionhaving an opening, and a slot intersecting said opening, an indicatorplate having a tongue insertible into the first named slot, the otherend of the plate having tongue of a width equal to the diameter of thesecond named opening and equal to the length of the intersecting slot,the tongue at its end being formed with a reduced neck and a head beyondthe neck, the tongue at the neck having a width equal to the opening atthe intersection of the slot, whereby said indicator plate whenvertically shifted in one direction may have its second named tongueshifted into said slot and when shifted vertically in the otherdirection will be held in said slot against rotation, and means forlocking the plate in said last named position and with the first namedtongue in engagement with the first named slot.

In testimony whereof I hereunto aflix my signature.

FRANK M. GINGER.

